(a) notes
that south-eastern Australia is the most fire prone region in the world;

(b) commends
the support provided by the Howard Government to New South Wales in
January 2002, in particular, the provision of aerial fire fighting equipment;

(c) expresses
its concern that the state government is whitewashing the causes of
the bushfire catastrophe of Christmas 2001 by just blaming pyromaniacs
during the current bushfires inquiry;

(d) calls
on the New South Wales Government to give serious consideration to the
evidence of State Forests of NSW, which believes that inadequate back-burning
was the primary cause of the devastating fires;

(e) rejects
calls from the Nature Conservation Council to restrict hazard reduction;

(f) calls
on the Carr Government to allow non-government committee members to
receive witnesses’ submissions without having to first request them;

(g) encourages
the inquiry to reach a conclusion based on evidence and not party politics
resulting from pressure from extreme green groups; and

(h) hopes
that the lessons learned from the bushfire inquiry will be shared to
other state governments so all Australians can avoid such an unnecessary
disaster.